When an infirm, elderlygentleman dies, there’s nothing about his death that seems suspicious. At least, not until one of his relatives says, “It’s been hushed up very nicely, hasn’t it… but he was murdered, wasn’t ?”

At first, Cora’s suspicions are ignored, but when she turns up dead after being murdered herself (with a hatchet, no less!), the rest of the family starts to ask themselves whether they’re really sure about what happened.

Now, you know what you’re getting with an Agatha Christie book, and in many ways they’re the same – she was always consistent, and there isn’t a great deal to mark this book out from the others. Still, it was eminently readable and I felt like I was whizzing through it, which is always a good thing for a murder mystery. I like the story line to be fluid and ever-changing – it’s way better than a jerky narrative where you have to stop every couple of pages to remind yourself what’s happening.

Agatha Christie

Poirot is here of course, and while he doesn’t feature too prominently in the story line, it’s certainly true that the mystery might not have been solved without him. You’ve just got to love the Belgian with the odd moustache.

Overall then, while this isn’t going to climb the ranks up to being my favourite of Christie’s detectivenovels, it’s still a damn good read and well-worth adding to your collection.